On behalf of the entire North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC), we warmly invite you to attend the 19th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR), the largest annual international scientific conference devoted to cutting-edge research using the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

The highly successful 18th ICAR, held last July in Beijing, marked the first time the meeting took place in an Asian country and nearly 1500 attendees participated in the event. Building upon increasingly global research efforts, the 19th Conference will mark another milestone: in July 2008, the Arabidopsis conference will be held in Canada for the first time. Over 1000 delegates from countries all over the globe are expected to come to beautiful Montreal in Eastern Canada to learn of recent advances in basic and applied Arabidopsis research.

Importantly, the Arabidopsis Conferences are notable for their emphasis on interaction among attendees and opportunities for young scientists to present their research. In 2008 the scientific program will include two Plenary sessions each morning and four Concurrent sessions each afternoon, which will include presentations chosen from submitted abstracts. As in the past, the Conference will feature a number of community-led workshops that will provide opportunities for focused and intimate discussion. Three poster sessions, including a special Saturday lunch-time session that also will feature select exhibitors with relevant products and technology for Arabidopsis research, will provide ample time for research discussion. New for this year is a free afternoon between the Friday morning sessions and evening workshops that will allow attendees to engage in networking and scientific discussion as well as the option to explore Montreal.

The preliminary scientific program is now available and includes sessions on Development, Cell Biology, Genomics, Metabolomics, Epi/Genetics, Systems Biology, Interactions with the Environment, Signal Transduction, Abiotic/Biotic Interactions, Evolution, Natural Variation, and Cell Walls.

We look forward to seeing you in Montreal in July, 2008 for an exciting scientific meeting in a beautiful setting.

Joe Kieber
(University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Xuemei Chen
(University of California, Riverside)

(NAASC members and Lead Scientific Organizers for ICAR 2008)